Progressive Geographies

Armoured Car, Maitama district, Abuja – photo by S. Elden

In early 2013, on one of my visits to Nigeria, I posted an annotated bibliography of academic work relating to Boko Haram.

I updated the bibliography periodically, and then put it to one side for several months. I have now added over forty new references to this bibliography (there are now 105 entries), and I have also made it into a pdf for easier formatting and reading.

Boko Haram are of course much in the news at the moment, especially following the kidnapping of the schoolgirls at Chibok, but their actions date back to 2009, with earlier roots. Only a few days ago, the United Nations Security Council added Boko Haram to its list of al-Qaeda associated groups run by their Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee (entry below; some analysis, graphics and maps at BBC News). This, and the publicity from the #bringbackourgirls campaign have led to a greater international focus, which may only serve to make things worse.

United Nations Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee entry for ‘Boko Haram’ on its list of Al-Qaeda associates.

The bibliography does not list news reports, but does provide a list of several websites or blogs that I find useful for keeping up-to-date on events. Reading widely is necessary given the fast-changing nature of events and the difficulties of getting accurate reports from the ground – the nature of the state of emergency in the north-east of the country makes this especially hard, but many Western news reports either come from Lagos or even further afield, and there is a lot of misreporting.

You can access the bibliography here (a page with the most recent pdf version). Comments or additions welcome – I hope people find this useful. Please consider publicising this in your networks – the point of this is to help provide a more informed view.